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Now that we’re transitioning into fall, this tea makes for a fucking insane latte! It’s warm and spicy in a similar enough way to what you’d get from a Chai tea that it kind of seamlessly takes the place of a Chai latte, in my opinion. However, it’s got the sweetness of the pineapple in it keeping it a bit brighter and more lively. I’m very happy I really stocked up on this one because I think it’s going to be something I’ll want to drink a lot this fall in place of Chai Lattes, which I’m not the world’s biggest fan of.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Still forever thinking that this tea’s name doesn’t do it justice.

Like, the amount of times it gets skipped over by people looking for soothing night time blends is crazy because this is actually a REALLY good evening option; people just have no clue what to expect from it based on the name. I mean, even I don’t know exactly what the name is referring to? I’m guessing probably the cooling element from the mint?

Anyway; this was really delicious last night – very thick mouthfeel and rich flavour. Plus, as someone who hates chamomile it’s really nice for me to have a bed time option that doesn’t include it but still has Valerian root! Top notes are vanilla and really cream lemon, body is apricot/apple, and the finish is crisp, cooling apple accented by the mint. Really relaxing overall.

Forever recommending this one as a night time herbal option; it’s an unsung hero.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This was rainy day tea #1 today.

It was dry in mouthfeel, but the flavour was sweet and juicy – just bursting with muscatel grape notes, and floral aspects. The base is a touch malty, and that adds a nice layer of flavour as well. I enjoy how rich this tea is flavour wise.

Also, surprisingly it seemed very fitting for a rainy day? Almost like sitting on the front porch with a glass of wine in hand watching the rain – I mean in a way that is EXACTLY what I did just. Just also not. Anyway, what I’m getting at is #aesthetic.

I’m in kind of a sad, melancholy mood today but at least so far the morning has been filled with good tea, and rain! God, I fucking love the rain – it’s so beautiful and calming.

This is rainy day tea #2 – something sweet, smooth and nutty! It makes me think of crunchy peanut butter, with hints of coconut for a bit of extra nuance and layered flavour. For me at least, this is the pinnacle of a relaxing, comfortable tea. Smooth, and rich!

I don’t know why I feel so sad today, but at least I feel a little less sad sipping on this one.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Managed to sneak in one last cup of tea before I have to get ready for work right away!

I’m always excited to try a new Nepalese tea, and I’ve really enjoyed the offerings from Terroir Tea that I’ve had so far so adding this to my Amoda sample order was a really easy decision for me.

Dry, the leaf reminded me a lot of Glossette raisins: smooth, sweet and chocolatey with that raisin undertone to it. Now that I’m drinking it steeped up, I’m finding it a lot more malty/woody and floral, with some raisin/muscat sort of undertones and just the tiniest hint of cocoa and overlying sweetness in general (perhaps the honey that’s described). It’s fairly medium bodied overall, with a nice balance of flavour and softness to the top notes and finish. Pretty different from the dry leaf aroma, overall. I really love how smooth it is though, and the thickness of the mouthfeel.

Reminds me loosely of a 1st Flush and 2nd Flush Darjeeling cross/mix.

Had a smooth, calming cup of this last night…

A little weighted towards the sweet star anise/black licorice side of things; enough so that my mom was complaining about the “black licorice I was eating being really strong smelling” from a room over. I thought it was funny that she thought I was eating black licorice, but I mean I guess it’s not that far outside the realm of possibility: I do really like black licorice a lot…

Dewy pear undertones, with a bit of a fresh floral and somewhat creamy aspect to them as well. Probably exaggerated a bit by the white tea base, to be fair. I did think the base was pretty darn masked though.

I wonder if I’ve ever had this one as a latte? I can’t recall ever doing it that way but I suppose it’s possible I have and it just wasn’t memorable. I just couldn’t help but think last night that this one would be a very nice latte.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/XZPebI2Er2I

Something sweet, smooth, and soft – perfect for this tea.

Sipdown (340)!

This was a cold brew.

I have to say that this wasn’t the best cold brew ever flavour wise; it was very aggressive and harsh with really blunt, choppy jasmine and hay notes. No delicateness, nuance and calming factor. However I know that’s because of the fact this brew was comprised of all the broke up buds and drugs at the bottom of this tin so I’m not upset about it at all. In fact, it was still a very hard sipdown for me because for the last two-three years this tea has been a serious staple in my cupboard. So, it’s heart breaking to be done with it for a while…

I’m sure at some point I’ll revisit this one or restock in general; but in the mean time I was to explore some of the other Mo Li Yin Zhen options from other companies since I’ve just been really fixated on this one for the last while. It’s totally possible to have too much of a good thing, and I don’t want to reach that point.

So, sad sipdown – but a needed one.

From my last Matcha Outlet order.

I picked this one out because I wanted both fruity and dessert flavour options and this definitely works as both. I’ve never actually tried the Raspberry & Cream flavour but I’ve had the cream versions of strawberry and banana and I really liked both, so I was sure this would probably work well for me too.

I’m trying it for the first time in a breakfast shake; pretty much my normal matcha milkshake recipe, but with a bit less ice cream and some fresh sliced strawberries tossed in as well. It’s not as pretty as the matcha milkshakes usually come out because the red of the strawberries and green matcha makes this gross green/brown colour – but as long as taste is there then that’s all that matters!

- Just a touch artificial/chalky tasting
- I think I was too heavy handed with the matcha
- Otherwise very sweet/creamy with good, bright raspberry notes!
- A touch grassy and floral
- And a slight hint of strawberry

I’ll be sure to try it straight and in just milk as well; I’m very curious to see if that chalky sort of element is the ‘cream’ in the flavour or if it’s just ‘cause I used too much matcha. Sometimes artificial vanilla tastes VERY chalky to me, so I have to at least acknowledge that it might be the flavouring in this even though I’ve never experienced that chalky quality with any of the other “and cream” matcha flavours I’ve tried…

Another custom tea!

So, this is probably the most important tea from my last BlendBee order, and consequently also the tea that I had the least amount to do with. I thought it might be a nice thing to get him to make his own tea – and this is pretty well what he came up with. So, since he really didn’t have any clue where he wanted to start, we very loosely modeled this after DT’s Long Life Oolong blend since that’s one he really enjoys.

Instead of an oolong base, he opted for an English Breakfast black tea because he’s definitely more of a black tea person overall – and EB is fairly close to his all time favourite black tea as well, Irish Breakfast. The of course we added peach and apricot flavour because those are the fruity notes in LLO. Next the nut element; LLO uses almond but instead we chose hazelnut to keep things a little different, and because hazelnut is a bit sweeter in both of our opinions. Then is was time for the other ingredients meant to accent the flavour and provide some contrast – this is more where I stepped in, and helped select some of the ingredients. We chose cinnamon because I thought it might be nice to have a warming spice element to help tie in the nut and the fruit components: cinnamon also compliments peach well and hazelnut.

Then I picked some herbs: nettle leaf because I know it also compliments cinnamon and peach well and I thought it’d add a nice, soft earthy herbaceous quality that would add some depth to the blend. Marshmallow root for some sweetness. Finally, I chose to add thyme. Now, this is the ingredient I was most excited and cautious about: thyme is a REALLY nice complimenting flavour to peach, and I’m personally a huge fan of savory teas. However, I’m also concerned that the boyfriend wont enjoy the flavour of it because it’s SO outside his comfort zone. The thyme is also the ingredient that sets this one apart from DT’s LLO blend the most in my opinion and while the boyfriend may have modeled this one after that blend loosely, it was also important to me for it to be its own thing.

Also – we named the blend Watchmaker’s Brunch; the ‘brunch’ part of the blend being a play on the fact we used a Breakfast tea as the base and the watchmaker part being a reference to the fact that the boyfriend is a watch repairman and LOVES watches.
So while I stand by the addition of thyme for flavour is also allowed me to be able to make this awful pun:

_Every good Watchmaker should make a little thyme in their day for a good cuppa tea._

(BlendBee has a letter cap so I couldn’t call this one Watchmaker’s Breakfast but if there wasn’t a letter cap that’s what we would have gone with)

Anyway now that my explanation of our intentions behind the blend is done, the actual review portion of this tasting note starts here:

First thing I notice drinking this is that the thyme is really strong. I think that’s a wonderful quality because it adds this really fun, unique savory element right off that bat, and it’s almost immediately followed by a smooth, sweet peachy note that contrasts it perfectly! The peach seems sweeter/juicier against the herbaceous thyme and, to a lesser extent, the nettle that also contrasts it. The thyme feels earthier and more grounded against the brightness of that Georgia Peach/apricot combo!

However, as much as I’m swept up by this stellar top note and body flavour combo I’m also immediately worried that the boyfriend is not going to like it. What I find elegant and nuanced I worry will be WAY outside of his comfort zone.

Transitioning out of the thyme/peach and nettle/apricot body flavours, we see more of the sweet and nutty side of this blend – while I don’t think the hazelnut actually distinctly comes off as hazelnut it IS obvious to me that there’s something rich and nutty going on here that adds yet another really interesting layer of flavour to the whole cuppa. I like that it’s very lingering as well, along with a strong lingering peachy note.

The other noteworthy things in the blend are the cinnamon and the English Breakfast base. I don’t think either are really vibrant flavours in this mix overall but they ARE both noticeable as consistent background flavours. The cinnamon is light and warming and adds a very comforting quality, and while it’s certainly a LIGHT flavour it may arguably be the most important because I think it really ties all of the other elements together in a very concise way. It literally compliments every other ingredient in this blend. The English Breakfast is like a solid backbone to the cup! It adds strength and body, and just a hint of maltyness. Also definitely important.

Overall, I really like this one! I think it’s really playfully nuanced and fun, and I like that it’s both very sweet and savory. It came together in a really great way, and I think that the boyfriend should be proud of it! However, I’m still very concerned that he’ll hate it just because of how strong the thyme is overall…

Midday pot of tea.

This is one of several Dian Hong teas I nabbed from teabento after their generous offer to send samples to people in exchange for reviews. I tried the last one Gong Fu but this afternoon I’m more in the mood for something super casual/where I wont have to time anything. So I’m having a larger, Western style teapot of this one. I used 3.5g of leaf, and let it steep for about four minutes.

The dry leaf is really pretty for this tea; not as visually striking colour wise as the Golden Fox but I’ve always deeply loved the appearance of tea that’s as twisty and softly curled as this one is. It smells lightly malty, with some stonefruit notes and this also stays true as it’s steeping: warming malt notes with a sweeter fruity element.

Flavour wise, I’m immediately drawn in by how smooth this one is both in flavour and mouthfeel. It feels like drinking liquid velvet; very rich, and soft. I feel like it coats my whole mouth in the most pleasant way. To take it even a step further poetically, it’s not the sparks/fireworks of a first kiss sweeping you off your feet but the intimate and deep, flowing molten lava of a kiss from someone who’s not only swept you off your feet but caught you, and continued to hold you close to them.

Flavour wise, I don’t think this is nearly as chocolate-y as Golden Fox. I mean, you have to keep in mind that these are too very different prep styles but I have a feeling that regardless of how you steeped them this would be the less chocolate-y one. It’s definitely a lot more fruity; a mix of plummy stonefruit notes and more jammy red fruit notes. Red currant also springs to mind. The finish is a little more malty with accompanying wood notes, and the slightest hint of lemon curd. I’m enjoying the mix of sweet fruit notes and more savory/umami woody elements in this tea immensely!

Honestly, so far between the two Dian Hongs I think I might enjoy Golden Fox just a little bit more, but only because I tend to lean in hard to those chocolate notes in a good black tea. Both are REALLY good though – and I think could probably have a place in my cupboard if I didn’t already have so many DH teas on hand already. Plus, I think because they’re so different at least in regard to that key chocolate note that someone could also deeply love one but not like the other, if they weren’t like me and a fan of both of them.